Key Witness in Markel Murder Trial, Measuring Mergers, Census Litigation Fees: The Morning Minute
Here's the news you need to start your day.
October 02, 2019 at 06:00 AM
4 minute read
Want to get this daily news briefing by email? Here's the sign-up.
|
WHAT WE'RE WATCHING
UGLY DETAILS – Florida State law professor Dan Markel was shot twice at close range by Sigfredo Garcia five years ago, in a murder-for-hire plot that Garcia's sometimes girlfriend Katherine Magbanua helped arrange, according to testimony from a key prosecution witness Tuesday. As Karen Sloan reports, Luis Rivera told a Tallahassee jury in the Markel murder trial that he and his childhood friend Garcia were paid to travel from Miami to Tallahassee to kill the law professor so that Markel's ex-wife could relocate to South Florida with the couple's two children—a move the former spouses had wrangled over in court. Garcia and Magbanua are standing trial for first-degree murder, while Rivera in 2016 pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.
WILMER-BOUND – Most premier law firms would be happy to add a former special counsel, FBI director or U.S. attorney for a prime region like Northern California to their roster. With Robert Mueller, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr gets all three. Dan Packel reports on what the 75-year-old former special counsel—along with special counsel team members Aaron Zebley and James Quarles—brings to the firm, which has a longstanding reputation for expertise in investigations.
AT ODDS – Two legal industry consultancies that track law firm mergers issued very different assessments of merger activity for the third quarter of 2019 this week, with one detailing a slowdown and the other suggesting it was a law firm lovefest. But, as David Thomas reports, however you count them, mergers tallies this year seem lackluster compared with the banner year in 2018, says one law firm consultant.
CHOICES - Nonprofit group AccessLex Institute has launched an online program that aims to help would-be law students determine what matters most to them—a Big Law job, public interest work, debt load, even the climate where they'll live—and then identify the best law schools based on those priorities. Karen Sloan reports XploreJD is part of AccessLex Institute's goal of increasing access to legal education through research and programming.
|
EDITOR'S PICKS
Georgia's Law Against Abortion Hit With Preliminary Injunction
s the Cloud Cheaper? For Law Firms, It's Difficult to Say
|
WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING
NEW GUARD – U.K.-based Clyde & Co has appointed a new CEO to take over from Peter Hasson, who has led the firm since 2005. Simon Lock reports that Matthew Kelsall, who first joined the firm in 2007, will officially take over the role on Jan. 1. Hasson will take up the role of consultant at Clydes, working on behalf of the management board.
|
WHAT YOU SAID
"He 100 percent did not do anything illegal. I think the congressional forum is very partisan."
— Jon Sale, a former prosecutor and now of counsel at Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough, who is representing Rudy Giuliani in the congressional impeachment investigation into President Trump.➤➤ Sign up here to receive the Morning Minute straight to your inbox.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View All
Contract Software Unicorn Ironclad Hires Former Pinterest Lawyer as GC
2 minute read
Florida-Based Law Firms Start to Lag, As New York Takes a Bigger Piece of Deals
3 minute read
Trending Stories
- 1Gibson Dunn Sued By Crypto Client After Lateral Hire Causes Conflict of Interest
- 2Trump's Solicitor General Expected to 'Flip' Prelogar's Positions at Supreme Court
- 3Pharmacy Lawyers See Promise in NY Regulator's Curbs on PBM Industry
- 4Outgoing USPTO Director Kathi Vidal: ‘We All Want the Country to Be in a Better Place’
- 5Supreme Court Will Review Constitutionality Of FCC's Universal Service Fund
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250
